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2008-09 Los Angeles Kings season
The 2008–09 Los Angeles Kings season was the 41st season in the club's history. The Kings showed improvement while fielding the youngest team in the league (in terms of average age per player), but came up short of breaking a playoff drought that stretches back to the 2001-02 season. Despite a crazy schedule which saw them play 17 of their final 24 games away from Staples Center, the Kings managed to stay in the playoff hunt for much of the year. They played in 43 games decided by one goal, and their record in these games was 20-12-11, which bodes well for next season. Alexander Frolov led the team in goals with 32. This marked his fifth consecutive season with at least 20 or more goals. The last to do so before Frolov for the Kings was Luc Robitaille in the 1993-94 season. Also, defenseman Sean O'Donnell reached a milestone by playing in his 1,000th career NHL game on March 14. Pre-season On June 10, the Kings fired their head coach Marc Crawford after failing to make the post-season in back-to-back seasons. Crawford posted a 59-84-21 record during his tenure. He was replaced on July 17 by Terry Murray, who takes over his fourth team. Murray had previously coached for Washington, Florida, and Philadelphia, where he led the Flyers to the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals. Entering the season, Murray's career record is 360-288-89. Regular season The Kings made great strides in the 2008-09 season. They went from dead last in the league a year earlier in penalty killing to 7th best in the league, with an 82.9% rating. They had the fourth best faceoff win percentage, and allowed the fourth fewest shots on goal in the league. Five players played in all 82 games: Anze Kopitar, Michal Handzus, Matt Greene, Sean O'Donnell, and rookie Wayne Simmonds. Several surprises also emerged during the season. Kyle Quincey was grabbed off waivers shortly after season started from Detroit, due to the injury of Jack Johnson. Quincey went on to finish second in the team in assists and averaged over 20 minutes of ice time per game. Drew Doughty was the 2nd overall pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and immediately contributed to the team, leading the team in ice time and was second in blocked shots. He finished in the top ten in the league in several categories, and was considered a strong Calder Trophy candidate. Another surprise was Jonathan Quick, who emerged as the number one goaltender. Quick was thrust into the line-up following the trade of Jason LaBarbera in mid-season to Vancouver and an injury to Erik Ersberg. All Quick did was lead the team in every goaltending category, posting the third highest win total for a rookie in club history. He finished third in the league among rookie netminder in goals against average, and played in 22 of the final 27 and 41 of the final 52 Kings games. He had a 1.76 goals-against average (16 GA in 546:03) and .942 save percentage (258 saves in 274 shots) in nine straight appearances from March 22 to April 9. The Western Conference remained a tight race throughout the season, and the Kings weren't officially eliminated from the playoffs until two weeks remained in the season. Divisional standings 1 Note: No. = Division rank, CR = Conference rank, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold. Conference standings bold - qualified for playoffs, y''' - division winner, '''p - Presidents' Trophy winner Schedule and results |- | colspan="11"| |- | colspan="11"| |- | colspan="11"| |- | colspan="11"| |- | colspan="11"| |- | colspan="11"| |- | align="center" colspan="11"| Legend: Win (2 points) Loss (0 points) Overtime/shootout loss (1 point) |} Playoffs The Los Angeles Kings failed to qualify for the 2009 NHL Playoffs. Player stats Skaters Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played in; G''' = Goals; '''A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; +/-''' = Plus/minus; '''PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals |} |} Goaltenders Note: Min, TOI = Minutes played; W''' = Wins; '''L = Losses; T,T/OT = Ties; OTL = Overtime losses; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage; |} †Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Kings. Stats reflect time with the Kings only. ‡Traded mid-season Bold/italics denotes franchise record Awards and records Records Milestones Transactions Trades Free Agents | valign="top"| |} Waivers | valign="top"| |} Other Draft picks LA 's picks at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft in Ottawa • Ontario.